Robin McAuley has been entertaining rock fans with his immaculate voice for the past 40 years. Over those 40 years, he’s sang within the realms of heavy metal, hard rock, and AOR. It’s no surprise that all of these styles are touched upon on his first solo album in over two decades, Standing on the Edge. Since his last solo effort, McAuley fronted Survivor, joined the Raiding the Rock Vault cast, reunited with his old pal Michael Schenker, and started a new supergroup named Black Swan. In other words, he’s been too busy to do a solo album…until now.
Standing on the Edge would not be made possible without a cast of familiar faces enlisted by Frontiers to bring it to life. It’s easy to criticize Frontiers for this revolving door approach of assembling supergroups and projects while the same handful of people operate from behind the scenes. I even did so in the case of the new Sweet Oblivion album. However, I truly believe that this fine tuning approach is done with nothing but the best intentions, regardless of the end product. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. The intention behind Standing on the Edge was to give melodic rock fans an album that recalled the glory days of McAuley Schenker Group. By and large, it works.
Whatever musical shortcomings there are on this record are made up by McAuley’s voice. Take the opening track, “Thy Will Be Done”. Musically, it’s a modern melodic metal/AOR headbanger that has become characteristic of several acts on the Frontiers roster. It’s enjoyable, but not quite memorable. That is until McAuley starts singing. For a man that turned 68 this year, McAuley sings with the spirit and power of a young man. His voice reaches stunning heights with seamless effort. This is evident from beginning to end of Standing on the Edge.
My favorite tracks are the ones that stride the line between metal and hard rock. The title track and “Say Goodbye” are textbook examples of this “hard and heavy” formula, balancing 80s arena metal riffs with radio friendly hard rock melodies. Other highlights include the AOR/adult contemporary ballads, “Late December” and “Wanna Take a Ride”. McAuley never recorded music during his tenure with Survivor, but if he had, chances are it’d sound like this. Both songs keep the nostalgic 80s fire of Peterik and Sullivan burning bright. Finally, there’s McAuley’s reunion with his old Grand Prix bandmate, Phil Lanzon, on “Like a Ghost”. Grand Prix was very similar in nature to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, though with an early 80s twist. Ironically, after Grand Prix’s demise, Lanzon joined Heep on keyboards and has been with them ever since. As a result, the organ drenched “Like a Ghost” channels Heep in the most reverent and rocking of ways.
McAuley is a melodic rock treasure. I commend him and the good folks at Frontiers for putting together a collection of old school hard rock that’s both fresh and energizing. Now let’s just hope it isn’t another 22 years until the next McAuley solo album. At that rate, McAuley would be 90…and he’d still probably be singing better than your favorite singer.
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: AOR
For fans of: McAuley Schenker Group, Dokken, Survivor